Cameras are well-known in the prior art. FIG. 1 depicts a simplified diagram of prior art camera 110 comprising photodiode 111. Photodiode 111 receives light through an aperture in camera 110 and converts light into electric current or voltage. As is well-known, a still image or moving image (video) can be captured of an object of interest, such as physical object 120 in this example.
Also in the prior art, certain digital image capture formats allow for the insertion of metadata, that is, data that is related to the image but not necessary for reconstruction of the image. Example of such image formats are the JPEG format for still images and the MPEG-4 (H.261) format for moving images (video). These formats allow for the embedding of arbitrary metadata that describes information related to the capture of the image. Examples of metadata that is frequently embedded in digital images include date of capture, GPS coordinates of capture location, camera settings (shutter speed, aperture), copyright data, image size, and software used to process the image.
There are numerous metadata standards that define the data model for the metadata. One example is Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP). XMP is a standard format that does not restrict the attribute field of the metadata and has a flexible definition of the type of data value. Other standard formats, such as Dublin Core (DCI), Information Interchange Model (IIM), and Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), have specific elements (attributes) and value types. For example, XMP standard defines special namespaces for DCI elements. In general, image formats do not require any metadata. Furthermore, image formats do not require existing metadata to follow a standard.
Some encoding formats for digital still image are JPEG, GIF, PNG, JPEG2000, BMP, FITS, TIFF, RAW, and FITS. All these formats allow insertion of metadata into the file. Common video encoding formats typically are all container formats because the formats need to support multiple types of data streams—e.g. video, audio, and subtitles. The formats typically support metadata for the container itself; a few support a metadata stream that can be synchronized with the video image. Examples of video container formats include MP4, AVI, MPEG, MKV, Ogg, MXF, DPX, and Quicktime, of which only MKV (Matroska) and Ogg are open source. The most common video stream encoding format is MPEG-2 (H.261), which is streamed video supported in most container formats.
The prior art also includes numerous three-dimensional (3D) modeling formats, some proprietary and tied to a specific software tool such as the products sold with trademarks AutoCad and Lightwave, while others are more general. Simple 3D modeling formats like STL and OBJ do not have definitions for metadata, but most proprietary and newer formats supports embedded metadata. Examples of 3D modeling formats include AMF, STL, OBJ, Blender, DWG (used by the product with trademark Autocad), X3D, SKP (used by the product with trademark Google Sketchup), and LWO (used by the product with trademark Lightwave).
Also known in the prior art are laser distance measuring devices for measuring the distance between the device and an object. FIG. 2 depicts prior art distance measuring device 210, which comprises laser diode 211, photodiode 212, lens 213, and lens 214. In one prior art technique, laser diode 211 emits modulated laser light. The light is focused through lens 213, hits physical object 120, and the light reflects off of physical object 120. A portion of the light will return to distance measuring device 210 through lens 214 and hit photodiode 212. Distance measuring device 210 can capture the distance between photodiode 212 and each portion of physical object 120 using numerous different techniques. In one technique, distance measuring device 210 measures the time that elapses between the emission of the laser light from laser diode 211 and the moment when reflected light is received by photodiode 212, and it then calculates distance from that time measurement. An example of a novel laser distance measuring device and calibration technique is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/458,969, filed on Mar. 14, 2017, and titled “Using Integrated Silicon LED to Calibrate Phase Offset in Optical Receiver in Laser Range Finder,” which is incorporated by reference herein.
To date, the prior art has not integrated a laser distance measuring device with a camera to capture spatial information for an object with sufficient accuracy to enable the types of applications described herein. The prior art also lacks a data structure for sending and receiving spatial metadata related to an image. The prior art also lacks the ability to capture, transmit, and modify spatial metadata and transactional metadata for a product that is captured in an image, which limits the detail that can be exchanged as part of an e-commerce transaction.
What is needed is the ability to capture spatial metadata with the captured image, to store spatial metadata with the image, and to later utilize the spatial metadata. What is further needed are applications that utilize such spatial metadata and transactional metadata that can be associated with the image.